30 Days of Guardian

[extrapenguin]

24. The one thing you most wish they'd expanded on because it was a cool idea and needed more details
The fact that Shen Wei slept for 10k years, buried beneath the earth! He's a time traveler into the future! I wanted everything about his early days in modernity and how he adapted. In 10k years the culture must've changed a lot, both topside and in Dixing, so we have Shen Wei with his half-remembered harvest festivals and counting time by full moons stuck either in Dixing with the ... Algae Festival or whatever and zero stars or Moon, or in Haixing another fully unfamiliar set of everythings. They cheated a bit and had everyone speak modern Mandarin and write with modern hanzi, but the cultural setting – from material culture to hairstyles – has changed dramatically.

Shen Wei's adapted admirably well to it, but I want the investigation of the little things that he hasn't had the time or opportunity to perfect and thus screws up with in odd yet consistent ways. I want Shen Wei nostalgic for something from his youth, even if he knows that the modern era is a much better place to live. I want something that acknowledges Shen Wei as alien to both Haixing and Dixing, a relic of yore with no place to go and find home save those he carves out himself. And I want him to find that he has friends who're okay with him being a time-traveling alien who had to learn all of modernity as an adult. I want to give him a little corner of the universe where he doesn't have to pretend.

1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Least favorite case
4. Favorite Holy Tools arc
5. Least favorite Holy Tools arc
6. Which character would you resurrect?
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite piece of worldbuilding
10. Favorite rarepair
11. Favorite headcanon
12. Least favorite headcanon
13. Favorite main villain
14. Favorite minor character relationship
15. Villain you’d like redeemed or whose redemption you liked
16. Favorite conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
17. Favorite bit missed on first watch but picked up on rewatch
18. Least favorite villain
19. Least favorite character
20. Most appealing point for a canon divergence AU
21. Sluttiest dresser award
22. Favorite science moment
23. Which two characters who didn't meet should have, and how might that scene go?
24. The one thing you most wish they'd expanded on because it was a cool idea and needed more details
25. Favorite point of characterization
26. What Dixing power do you wish would've existed in the show?
27. What minor plot arc should have gotten another episode, and why?
28. Thoughts and feelings on the ending
29. Favorite interpretation of why the Hallows do the things they do
30. Favorite unanswered question (and what you want the answer to be)

Comments

[demitas]

YES, ME TOO. I desperately want more of Shen Wei adapting to modern life (or modern life as it was whenever he went up to Haixing, which was long enough ago for him to have gotten a doctorate and become a respected professor).

How well does he know Zhao Xinci? What was their working relationship when the SID was first formed? He has friends from college (e.g. Dr. Cheng, Prof Zhou), how did he make them? Does he still keep in contact with any others of them? How much searching for Kunlun did he actually do while also trying to learn how the modern world works, take classes, do his BCE duties, and presumably relax at some point?

(I have a longfic with this premise that I've thought about a lot but haven't written any of... and given my writing speed and other projects on the horizon, it's going to be a long time before I can get to actually writing it, lol. But it's one I definitely want to get back to at some point.)

[extrapenguin]

which was long enough ago for him to have gotten a doctorate and become a respected professor
Given the size of his research group (one Li Qian) and his young official age, he's probably a very newly-minted professor. Since he must've gone to university to meet all the friends, and uni starts at 18, he's been in Haixing for 14 years at least. (And it's also likely that Zhao Xinci did the official paperwork, as the Regent says he knows just the dude to ask.)

presumably relax at some point
Bold of you to assume Shen Wei is even capable of relaxing

I will also be very interested in your longfic once it's done! Shen Wei figuring out how to exist amidst modern humanity is one of my favorite things to think about.

[demitas]

Bold of you to assume Shen Wei is even capable of relaxing
hahaha I thought about that as I was typing it. He does have a lot of books unrelated to his studies on his shelves, though, so while I know that's the prop department making prop decisions, from a Watsonian perspective they need to be there for some reason! (Possibly he intends to read them at some point, when he has time... which is never.)

I'm also of the opinion that ZXC is the one the Regent is referring to there. I was thinking the timeline didn't work out for some reason, but if he's been in Haixing for ~14 years, it should be fine - the SID was founded some 20 years ago, so ZXC should have the authority to help him out with integration (at least as much as he feels like helping, lol).

On a related note, I now also want all the stories about ZXC's relationship with the Regent, since if ZXC is who the Regent is referring to, they know each other before SW goes up there. Maybe working with the Regent is part of why ZXC is so sour about Dixing lol

[extrapenguin]

He does have a lot of books unrelated to his studies on his shelves, though, so while I know that's the prop department making prop decisions, from a Watsonian perspective they need to be there for some reason!
They're his background research for how to human! He went into a bookstore and asked for the books popular with humans to gain insight into their psyche. Shen Wei is very diligent about his background reading.

I now also want all the stories about ZXC's relationship with the Regent, since if ZXC is who the Regent is referring to, they know each other before SW goes up there. Maybe working with the Regent is part of why ZXC is so sour about Dixing lol
OH WOW I had never before considered that, and, yes. That would explain a lot about Zhao Xinci. And maybe the Regent?

[demitas]

Maybe Zhao Xinci and the Regent fed off each other. Like they could have had a bad first conversation, came away with a negative impression of what the other was like, and then every meeting thereafter just reinforced those perceptions (because when you're looking for something in someone else's behavior, it's easy to find). The more Zhao Xinci saw the Regent was being manipulative/obsequious/whatever, the more irritated he got; the more the Regent felt like Zhao Xinci was upset about something, the more he was obsequious/manipulative/whatever. It was probably a huge relief to the Regent to hand off the duty of interacting with Zhao Xinci to Shen Wei, and poor Shen Wei had no idea what he was stepping into!

[extrapenguin]

Maybe Zhao Xinci and the Regent fed off each other. Like they could have had a bad first conversation, came away with a negative impression of what the other was like, and then every meeting thereafter just reinforced those perceptions
Ooh, this is a very good interpretation! And poor Shen Wei, indeed, having the most annoyingest of the Regent's responsibilities fobbed off on him. No wonder he didn't want to interact much with the SID until Zhao Yunlan came along.

[forestofglory]

Yes! I really enjoy that kind of fish out of water story. So much scope for both worldbuilding and character development there.

[extrapenguin]

A fish out of water who's very desperately pretending that he has always been a rodent like everyone else, too! In addition to being a time traveler, Shen Wei is also a big closet metaphor. *g*

[tinny]

Oh yes, that would have been great.

[extrapenguin]

I just want all the worldbuilding and Shen Wei adapting to the present!